Welcome to the revised version of the Academic Guide, the repository for academic policies on the Bloomington campus of Indiana University. This version, first posted in July 2010, contains substantial changes in both content and format. On December 1, 2009, the Bloomington Faculty Council gave omnibus approval to important substantive changes in the Academic Guide. First, the Guide now includes all new and substantively amended academic policies adopted since the last major revision in 2002. Second, narrative interpretations of some policies have been revised to bring them into alignment with current administrative practices. Third, recent administrative restructuring created the need for us to make many nomenclature changes in offices and titles (e.g., from Chancellor to Provost; from Dean of Faculties to Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education or Vice Provost for Faculty & Academic Affairs). All of these changes are reflected in the July 2010 version.

The new format makes the Academic Guide more accessible and easier to navigate. For the first time, users of the Guide will be able to browse through our academic policies, using the table of contents in the box at the left, selecting and copying passages that may be printed off or embedded in other documents. The “search” function enables users to find chosen character strings wherever they appear in the Guide. For the nine topics in the Guide listed to the left, the final section in each contains the actual policies themselves, listed and numbered. Sections that come before the policies are narrative summaries of our current administrative practices. To get a thorough understanding of a policy issue, you should consult both the relevant policies themselves, and their administrative interpretations. And finally, if you click on the lamp, you will return to the Academic Guide’s main page. We hope that the revamped Academic Guide contributes in a positive way to shared faculty and administrative governance on the Bloomington campus.